The present invention relates to an optical exposure apparatus of a scan-exposure system for transferring a pattern image formed on a reticle onto a wafer as the reticle and the wafer are relatively moved, and its exposing method, and more particularly to improvement of the reduction of a DOF (Depth of Focus) of a projection lens, which is caused by deformation of the reticle and upper and lower movement of the reticle at the time of scanning exposure.
Generally, in a lithography process of a semiconductor manufacture, an optical stepper of a reduction projection type is used. In the current optical stepper, the minimal pattern pitch of a device can be formed to be a quarter micron.
In the optical stepper, RES (resolution) of the pattern pitch of the quarter micron was achieved by highly enlarging a numerical aperture of the projection lens and shortening an optical exposure wave length (xcex) as shown in the following equation (1).
RES=k1xc2x7(xcex/NA)xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
DOF=xc2x1k2xc2x7(xcex/(NA)2)xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(2)
wherein each of k1 and k2 is a constant, and NA is a numerical aperture of the projection lens.
As shown in equation (2), if the numerical aperture NA of the projection lens is highly enlarged and the optical exposure wave length is shortened, the DOF of the projection lens is lowered. This causes a so-called defective resolution in which a pattern image formed on a reticle becomes dim on the exposure surface of a wafer. In order to solve this problem, it is required that the projection image from the reticle and the exposure surface of the wafer be focused on each other with high accuracy.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic structure of the conventional optical stepper to improve the reduction of DOF. Specifically, for example, a reticle 3 is irradiated with light from a light source 1 through a condenser lens 2. A pattern image formed on the reticle 3 is reduced by a projection lens 4 so as to be projected on a wafer 5. As a result, photoresist on the surface of the wafer 5 is exposed by the projection image (reduced pattern image) from the reticle 3. At this time, the position of the exposure surface of the wafer 5 is measured by a wafer position measuring device 6. To focus the projection image from the reticle 3 on the exposure surface of the wafer 5 with high accuracy, the position of the wafer 5 in the direction of an optical axis (Z-axis) is controlled in accordance with the measuring result of the wafer position measuring device 6. In other words, the wafer position measuring device 6 comprises an LED 6a and a PSD (position sensitive detector) 6b. The driving system (not shown) in the Z-axial direction of the wafer 5 is controlled such that the output of PSD 6b is always set to xe2x80x9c0.xe2x80x9d
However, by the above-mentioned wafer position measuring device 6, there can be obtained only data of the position of the exposure surface of the wafer 5 in the Z-axial direction. In other words, by the measuring device 6, there can not be obtained data of the position of the pattern image forming surface on the reticle 3 in the Z-axial direction, that is, one of causes of reducing DOF. In the conventional optical stepper, there was used a so-called step and repeat system. Specifically, the reticle 3 is mounted on a fixing state (reticle stage) 3xe2x80x2, the position of a movable stage (wafer stage) 5xe2x80x2 where the wafer 5 is mounted in each of X- and Y-axial directions is changed every time when each exposure is performed. In the optical stepper of this type, the deformation (curve and tilt) of the reticle 3 and the upper and lower movement of the reticle 3 at the time of exposure can be ignored. For this reason, it was unnecessary to obtain data of the position of the pattern image forming surface on the reticle 3 in the Z-axial direction.
However, in order to make it possible to decrease the diameter of the projection lens, there has been recently developed a so-called optical exposure apparatus of a scan exposure type in which exposure is performed as the reticle and the wafer are relatively moved. In this type of the apparatus, the deformation of the reticle and the upper and lower movement of the reticle during the scan exposure have a great influence on the reduction of DOF. For example, if the amount of deformation in the Z-axial direction at the pattern image forming surface on the reticle is xcex94 Zm, the change xcex94 Zw of a focal position at the exposure surface of the wafer can be expressed by the following equation (3).
xcex94Zw=xcex94Zmxc2x7R2xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(3)
wherein R is a reduction ratio of the projection lens.
More specifically, if the amount of deformation of the reticle xcex94 Zm is 2 xcexcm, the change xcex94 Zw of the focal position at the exposure surface of the wafer is about 0. 13 xcexcm in the optical exposure apparatus of the scan exposure type whose reduction ratio of the projection lens is 1/4. This value cannot be ignored in the lithography process of the memory device in which higher integration and higher density are expected. In other words, the reduction of DOF in the optical exposure apparatus will become more and more serious in improving the integration and the density of the device.
An object of the present invention is to provide an optical exposure apparatus of a scan-exposure system, which can prevent a DOF (depth of focus) from being lowered by the position change of a reticle to the direction of an optical axis during a scan-exposure, and its exposing method.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided an optical exposure apparatus of a scan-exposure system for transferring a pattern image formed on a reticle onto a wafer as the reticle and the wafer are relatively moved, comprising:
reticle position measuring means for measuring the positional change of the reticle to the direction of an optical axis as the reticle is moved; and
correcting means for correcting a shift of a pattern image from a focal position on an exposure surface of the wafer based on the measuring value obtained by the measuring means.
Also, according to the present invention, there is provided an optical exposure apparatus of a scan-exposure system comprising:
an optical system for reduction-projecting a pattern image formed on a reticle onto an exposure surface of a wafer;
a reticle stage, mounting the reticle thereon, provided to be movable in at least a scanning direction perpendicular to a direction of an optical axis of the optical system;
a wafer stage, mounting the wafer thereon, provided to be movable in the direction of the optical axis of the optical system and the scanning direction perpendicular to the direction of the optical axis of the optical system;
reticle position measuring means for measuring the positional change of the reticle in the direction of the optical axis of the optical system as the reticle stage is moved in the scanning direction; and
correcting means for correcting the position of at least the wafer in the direction of the optical axis of the optical system based on the measuring value obtained by the reticle position measuring means.
Moreover, according to the present invention, there is provided an optical exposure apparatus of a scan-exposure system comprising:
an optical system for reduction-projecting a pattern image formed on a reticle onto an exposure surface of a wafer;
a reticle stage, mounting the reticle thereon, provided to be movable in the direction of an optical axis of the optical system and a scanning direction perpendicular to the direction of the optical axis of the optical system;
a wafer stage, mounting the wafer thereon, provided to be movable in at least the scanning direction perpendicular to the direction of the optical axis of the optical system;
reticle position measuring means for measuring the positional change of the reticle in the direction of the optical axis of the optical system as the reticle stage is moved in the scanning direction; and
correcting means for correcting the position of at least the reticle in the direction of the optical axis of the optical system based on the measuring value obtained by the reticle position measuring means.
Further, according to the present invention, there is provided an optical exposure apparatus of a scan-exposure system comprising:
an optical system for reduction-projecting a pattern image formed on a reticle onto an exposure surface of a wafer;
a reticle stage, mounting the reticle thereon, provided to be movable in at least a scanning direction perpendicular to the direction of the optical axis of the optical system;
a wafer stage, mounting the wafer thereon, provided to be movable in at least the scanning direction perpendicular to the direction of the optical axis of the optical system;
reticle position measuring means for measuring the positional change of the reticle in the direction of the optical axis of the optical system as the reticle stage is moved in the scanning direction; and
correcting means for correcting the position of at least the optical system in the direction of the optical axis based on the measuring value obtained by the reticle position measuring means.
Furthermore, according to the present invention, there is provided an exposing method of a scan-exposure system for scan-exposing a pattern image formed on a reticle onto a wafer to be transferred onto the wafer as the reticle and the wafer are relatively moved, comprising the steps of:
measuring a change of the position of the reticle to the direction of an optical axis as the reticle is moved in the scanning direction; and
correcting a shift of the pattern image from a focal position of the pattern image on the exposure surface of the wafer based on the measuring value.
According to the optical exposure apparatus of a scan-exposure system and the exposure method, it is possible to correct the change of the focal position of the projection image on the exposure surface of the wafer, which is caused by deformation of the reticle and the upper and lower movement of the reticle during the scan-exposure. As a result, regardless of the positional change of the reticle to the direction of the optical axis, the projection image from the reticle and the exposure surface of the wafer are always focused, so that the scan-exposure can be executed.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.